“Get big, get niche or get out” (business adage)
“Get big, get niche or get out” is a popular saying in the information technology (IT) industry, particularly in the UK. The saying means that a business can survive by “getting big” and having many clients, or by “getting niche” by appealing to a small but loyal client base—or the company should “get out” of business.
“Get big, get niche or get out” had been cited in print since at least 1996.
CRN UK News
Special report - Distribution, Part 2
Mini mice they’re not. Niche disties can hold their own in an industry where broadliners always seem to get the biggest chunk of cheese.Drew Cullen investigates.
By Guy Matthews
23 Apr 1996
(...)
The clarion call to the channel in the early 1990s from Don Pinchbeck, former Epson bigwig, was to get big, get niche or get out. But at the time it was questionable whether there was much of a future for niche distribution.
Google Books
Investors Chronicle
Volume 120, Issues 1521-1533
Financial Times Business Pub
1997
Pg. 43:
The key to success for any new consultancy seems to follow the same old rule: get big, get niche or get out.
Marketing Week
Electric dreams for BGT
Thu, 10 Sep 1998
(...)
Robert Pieczka, business manager at Eastern, says this leaves the RECs with three options: “to get big, get niche, or get out”.
Google Groups: uk.net
Newsgroups: freeserve.discuss, uk.net
From: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (Adrian Mardlin)
Date: 1998/09/30
Subject: Re: Yipeeeeeee!!!!
A while ago, someone was quoted as saying ‘get big, get niche or get out’. Many of us small-to-middling ISPs are niche in our own ways, and I think we’re actually more able to weather any storms that come along than some of the bigger guys are.
Google Groups: alt.www.webmaster
Newsgroups: alt.www.webmaster
From: “Adrian Appleyard”
Date: 2000/07/25
Subject: Re: Is web site design really a business?
As with almost all industries - get big, get niche or get out.
Wired magazine
Issue 14.11 - November 2006
Tiny Slice, Big Market
Now that a billion people are online, even sites aimed at a narrow slice of the Web audience can attract huge crowds. Make way for the meganiche!
By Clay Shirky
(...)
For most of the past decade, the basic strategy for building a successful Web site was encapsulated in the phrase “Get big, get niche, or get out.” You could appeal to a broad constituency, with all the blandness and generality that implies (think Yahoo), or you could target a tightly focused group that was far smaller but easier to reach and more loyal than a mass audience (think Slashdot). Getting big would yield high volume and low margins, while getting niche would bring the inverse. Getting out was what you were forced to do if you ended up stuck somewhere between the other two approaches.
The Reader
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Get big, get niche or get out!
The title is an old business mantra,said or quoted by many,but only a few actually managed to do it.If you are business owners like me,you know that it takes great efforts and some time to get big or get niche and it takes a lot of courage to get out.Many businesses operate some where between big and niche.
Bite Communications
Dotcoms punctuate Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list
December 6, 2011 by Martin Veitch
“Get big, get niche or get out”: this hoary old chestnut of business insight survives because it points to an essential, eternal truth that is underlined by the publication yesterday of the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, an index that tracks hyper-growth among UK privately-held companies. And that truth is that most successful businesses prosper because they are focused on a specific opportunity or because they have become too large to shift.